The crocodile was caught by Suchatree Anoma, 37, at a lagoon located in a 100 rai plot of land belonging to the private sector known as ‘Kenghuan’.
The lagoon itself covers approximately 50 rais and is said to be 12 metres deep in parts.
After capturing the baby croc Mr Suchatree took it back to his house which is 50m away from the lagoon.
The baby croc, the gender of which is currently unknown, is 50 centimetres long, weighed about 300 grams and was between two to three months old.
Mr Suchatree told The Phuket News this morning (Feb 2), “On Wednesday (Jan 31), my friend Pansak Jantawang, 39, and I put a fishing net out in the lagoon to catch fish. Mr Pansak told me that he saw a baby crocodile floating on the water. We used torches to look and saw a crocodile. We decided not catch the crocodile as that day was a big Buddhist day.
“Last night (Feb 1) we went there again. We saw a crocodile at the same area we saw it yesterday which is near a small island. I used a fishing rod with a fishing line to throw a fishing hook to the crocodile. The crocodile did not swim away, in fact it came closer to us. I quickly pulled the fishing rod and the hook got caught on the crocodile’s tail. I removed the crocodile from the lagoon and took it home,” Mr Suchatree explained.
“It is possible this crocodile might have been released from somewhere, but my neighbours told me that they have seen one or two crocodiles of the same size in this lagoon before.
“However, my family and I are now worried about whether this lagoon is safe or not. We want officers from the Phuket office of the Department of Fisheries to come and check,” Mr Suchatree added.
At about midday today officers from the Phuket office of the Department of Fisheries took the crocodile to the Phuket Coastal Fisheries Research and Development Centre in Pa Khlok.
Officials said that they might have to come to the lagoon to see if there are more crocodiles or not.